Hypocrisy when white boys brutalised by a black

Saturday, 06 June 2009 14:40 Anton Barnard

Possibly it’s because I hail from humble origins, but I’ve always been pretty skeptical about private schools. As one wag put it: Private schools are the cream of society – thick, rich and full of clots.

Although Parktown Boys High is admittedly not a private school, its fees are high and it is situated in the wealthy northern suburbs of Johannesburg. Possibly because of its liberal constituency, Parktown Boys was the first public school to admit non-whites in 1991. As the Wikipedia entry for the school gushes: “This was a bold step and can be attributed to the free-thinking management which is passed down to the school boys.”

Pity that its so-called free-thinking and liberal management do not extend to curtailing its barbaric initiation practices, which include stripping people naked and beating them with cricket bats and clubs, one might add.

What is of particular interest to me is the reaction of the press, many of the old boys and parents to the arrest of those responsible for the brutal initiations at Parktown Boys in 2009, and the contrast to the Reitzhuis incident in 2008, as well as other incidents of initiation at Afrikaans-language schools and university residences.

For those who do not remember, the Reitzhuis incident involved students at a University of the Free State residence filming black cleaners eating food which had ostensibly been “urinated” on as part of a prankvideo aimed at satirizing the ANC regime’s obsession with racist transformation (aka the ethnic cleansing of whites from institutions.) In reality, the “urine” at Reitzhuis was Oros, an orange cordial. At no stage were the cleaners physically harmed, in contrast to the brutal beatings with cricket bats that boys like Pene Kimber’s son suffered.

Ms Kimber said during a TV interview that her son’s buttocks were covered in black bruises after the incident. In stark contrast, none of the Reitzhuis “victims” even thought of complaining, simply becausethey hadn’t been harmed. It was a student who was not involved in the original incident who stumbled across the video and whose complaint started the storm of controversy.

Possibly because the students at Reitzhuis were Afrikaners and their unhurt (and I want to emphasize: UNHURT) “victims” black, however, there was an orgy of condemnation from all and sundry, including the international press. The left and their sycophantic media had a field day by hysterically and in unison screaming “racism.”

The ANC regime promptly instituted a commission of inquiry, which predictably concluded that all universities were infested by unrepentant white racists. Coloured academic Jonathan Jansen, an unapologetic critic and even hater of Afrikaners, was made rector of the university, possibly to teach those Afrikaner “racists” a lesson.

Fast forward from February 2008 to February 2009. During a similar incident, this time at an upper class English-speaking academic institution (Reitzhuis was Afrikaans-speaking), the black head boy, Kaizer Tabane, of Parktown Boys was one of the ring leaders of the attacks on Ms Kimber’s white son and other victims. He was admittedly later stripped of his responsibilities.

As far as I could ascertain, however, very few people viewed this as a racial incident. There were no headlines in the New York Times calling Tabane a racist and condemning his action. This is illogical in the light of the Reitzhuis outcry, given that the ringleader at Parktown Boys, the head boy, Kaizer Tabane, was black, and his victims included whites. On the other hand, bias against a group such as Afrikaners is almost always illogical.

The reaction and hypocrisy of the headmaster and some of the parents at Parktown Boys are also noteworthy. Whereas almost all callers to radio talk shows in the aftermath of the Reitzhuis video were unanimous in their shrill condemnation, many of the parents and old boys of Parktown Boys seem to want this incident kept silent. Many of them, in anonymous press interviews and calls to radio stations, want this incident to be handled “internally” (read: “swept under the carpet.”) The headmaster shows all the signs of somebody who desires a swift cover-up, accusing the press of bias against him.

Once again: when white, Afrikaans students play a prank in which nobody is physically harmed, it is “racism” and it reaches the front pages of the international press.

When a black is a ringleader of a brutal attack on white victims at an English-speaking school, the headmaster and parents want it covered up and handled internally. There is very little outcry in the liberal press.

Call me excessively Afrikaans, but this reeks of the utmost hypocrisy and bias against Afrikaners on the part of the local and international media.